Soitec adds one of its new sun-tracking concentrated solar photovoltaic panels to the East Campus Utility Plant at UCSD. Engineer Luc Mader directs a crane operator.
— Sean M. Haffey

A $25 million federal grant will speed the construction of a solar manufacturing plant in San Diego, in an effort to boost U.S. competitiveness.

Semiconductor maker Soitec Solar, recipient of the Department of Energy grant, will pour the funds into equipment at its Rancho Bernando-area plant. Production is set to start before the end of the year on concentrated photovoltaic modules that use optical lenses to focus sunlight on tiny, highly efficient solar cells.

"It's an endorsement of the technology," said Clark Crawford, vice president for sales and business development in the U.S. for Soitec, on Tuesday. "It's allowing us to accelerate the ramp up of our manufacturing line."

A publicly traded company based in Bernin, France, Soitec entered the concentrated photovoltaics business in 2009 with the purchase of Concentrix Solar, a spinoff of the Fraunhofer Institutes, a network of publicly funded research centers in Germany.

The local factory gives Soitec close access to a booming market for solar energy in California and the American Southwest. San Diego Gas & Electric has signed power purchase agreements for six solar farms that rely on Soitec’s trademark Concentrix technology.

The large panels rotate on two axes to align directly with the sun’s rays, providing a longer, steadier supply of electricity than fixed-panel technology.

Once fully operational, the Rancho Bernardo plant should employ about 450 people. About 30 employees hired in San Diego -- mostly computer and manufacturing engineers -- have been training for months at a solar production plant in Frieburg, Germany.

Soitec received the largest share of $37 million in Energy Department grants designed to accelerate high-volume solar manufacturing over the next two years.

The local plant is designed for annual production of 200 megawatts in solar-energy generation capacity, enough to power about 80,000 homes.